In most cases a scar injury will not have been caused by a car accident however there is a significant proportion that is a direct result of motor vehicle collisions. If you have been injured in an accident and you want to make a compensation claim for personal injury and loss just complete the contact form, email our lawyers offices or use the solicitors helpline. Our scar compensation solicitors offer advice at no cost without further obligation. If our scar compensation solicitors deal with your claim it will be on a no win no fee basis, compensation is paid in full and you do not have to fund or finance your car accident compensation claim.
Scarring and disfigurement come from an injury in which the severity of the injury is such that normal repair cannot happen or that has not had proper repair by a doctor. Most scarring comes from a laceration or an abrasion that does not heal right. Injuries can happen because of a fall, bumping into a sharp object, motor vehicle accident or sports injury. Scars are difficult to treat once they form.
Scars are fibrous tissues that replace the normal skin after a laceration or abrasion. It is a natural part of wound repair that allows for the replacement of normal skin with skin that has fibrous tissue beneath it. Every wound has some kind of scar, with the exception of very minor wounds. Whether the scar is disfiguring or not depends on how it is sutured and what is done to heal the scar. For example, infected wounds tend to be more disfiguring in the end than non-infected wounds.
Scar tissue is made of collagen but, instead of the normal basket weave formation that occurs when collagen is in normal tissue, the collagen forms a single direction that is functionally inferior to regular skin. Scars are not very resistant to ultraviolet radiation so you sunburn more on scars, sweat glands and hair follicles often do not grow back with scar tissue.
An injury becomes a scar when the wound has completely healed, which can take many months or years if the wound is infected or very large. Keloid scars are hypertrophic scars that take years to build up over time. The formation of a scar begins with clotting the bleeding and laying down a provisional matrix on the wound. Collagen is then laid down in a linear fashion, forming dense tissue that makes up the scar. The new tissue will have a different texture and appearance from the surrounding normal tissue. Keloid scars and other hypertrophic scars will be raised above the level of normal tissue and will be firm in texture. The collagen is laid down by fibroblast proliferation, which begins with reaction to the blood clot that has formed on the surface of the wound.
Collagen is white tissue that is laid down in an irregular fashion which makes scars uneven in some cases. The fibroblasts crawl around on the matrix, adding and adjusting collagen until the scarring settles and becomes very stiff in nature. The matrix contracts the tissue making the scar smaller than the original injury. Inflammation settles in the wound that promotes the collagen formation. The scar is initially red but this soon dissipates and the scar becomes white.
Scars are different depending on the persons age and on where on the body the injury occurred. The worse the initial injury, the worse the scar will turn out to be.
There are several types of scars. Hypertrophic and keloid scars are raised and very stiff. They are usually white in color and can be quite a bit raised from the normal tissue. Atrophic scarring or sunken scarring involves an over expression of collagen that blocks regeneration of underlying tissue and not enough collagen is raised in a vertical fashion. In some cases, stretch marks can be considered as scars. They form when skin stretches and tears beneath the dermis. When the stretch mark heals, collagen is formed beneath the skin, yielding a white scar where the skin tore.
Hypertrophic scars are not the same as keloid scars. Keloid scars are more serious and can grow to a large tumorous mass above the level of the normal skin. In other words, not all hypertrophic scars are keloid scars but all keloid scars are hypertrophic. Keloid scars grow outside the boundaries of the original wound and are larger than the original wound. Hypertrophic scars do not do this.
The treatment of scars includes the prescribing of enalapril, an Ace inhibitor, which treats hypertrophic scars when given in low doses. Certain bark extracts can be applied to reduce hypertrophic scars. Fish extract from certain fish can reduce hypertrophic scars. Injection of steroids can reduce the appearance of hypertrophic scars. Chemical peels can reduce the appearance of scars.
If you have suffered physically, mentally or financially, you should consider making an accident compensation claim. For free telephone advice from specialist personal injury solicitors just call the helpline. Our scar compensation solicitors will assess the strength of your claim and will advise you on your potential award of compensation without any further obligation.
LAWYER HELPLINE: ☎ 1800 339 958The author of the substantive medical writing on this website is Dr. Christine Traxler MD whose biography can be read here